I don't know much about software details. Shouldn't we be linking with
the Raspberry pi folk. Does any QL-user know what the ARM chip offers
that SBASIC/Minerva could integrate with? Perhaps a different processor
would be compliant.
Bryan H
On 07/06/2011 11:06, Dilwyn Jones wrote:
Norman Dunbar wrote:
I have also been racking my brains as to what
I could do with multiple systems such as these inside the QL black
box.
Multi-multi-multi-multi-task?
Umm, Linux running uQLx running a Spectrum emulator which in turn runs
a ZX81 emulator which in turn has a MSDOS emulator??? ;-)
Ok, being serious for a bit, it happens occasionally!
Having SuperBasic available at switch on is probably possible. You can
do it in a number of different ways:
* Have "init" be redirected to run a shell that runs <whatever> that
runs SuperBAsic. Once you quit though, you are out of the system and
in a shutdown. (I think!)
* Have each user's default shell be set to <whatever> that runs
SuperBasic. That way, when the user logs in, they go direct to
SuperBasic (ok, via <whatever>) and when they exit from SuperBasic,
they effectively logout. The system stays running and they can login
again.
* There are other ways, like a startup script that runs SuperBasic
somehow. and so on.
It would be interesting to see how cleanly QDOS and SuperBASIC (or
equivalent in SMSQ/E) are implemented and how easy or hard it would be
to separate them. Or, someone like Laurence or Marcel might have views
on how feasible it would be to do a stand-alone BASIC or whether the
OS and interpreter are too integrated to separate them.
Problem, how do you run Superbasic - written in 6800x assembly - on a
system that will not be running a 6800x processor? Well, you could
write SuperBasic in C or C++ (If you must!) or some other language
that is "processor insensitive". When done and tested, make it Open
Source and see if the developers of the Raspberry Pi want to offer it
as a built in language.
If this were to prove possible, it opens up all sorts of
possibilities, not just for this computer.
We would then be in the realms of something like BBC BASIC all those
years ago which was implemented on all sorts of systems 6502, Z80 and
808x for example. Not just BBC micros.
Of course, the advantage is that you would be able to recompile the
system for other chip types and hopefully have a working system for
all platforms that Linux runs on.
Could it be done? Probably. I'm not sure about what copyright etc
[still] exists for SuperBasic - both the name, the language and the
whatevers that go with it. It might be an interesting project though.
Given that, and assuming it can be done, it's easy to set up a new
project on Sourceforge and open it up to all and sundry to help with,
but how many people on this list (or known to this list) have the
ability to do such a thing?
Of course, it would work just as happily as a Windows project as well,
assuming "we" use decent cross platform tools (wxWindows, QT, Fox,
etc).
So, those are my ramblings on the matter. Any comments?
It's very interesting proposition, if it proves to be technically
possible. After all, all sorts of interesting QL-type projects have
sprung up outside the mainstream QL areas, e.g. the QL board made
using the Propeller robotics chips, the MESS emulator and so on. I
look forward also to people's views on this and whether it is a viable
project.
Dilwyn Jones
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